Wednesday, October 29, 2008

New England Ultras

So I'm off to Pittsfield, VT for the weekend to try my hand at race directing. So far the experience has been educational for sure and once I return from the weekend, I plan on sharing my thoughts on the topic with all of you. Basically, regardless of how this weekend turns out, its going to be a very VERY long time before I am a race director once again.

The 200 Milers start on Thursday evening, 5pm. They have 72 Hours to complete the course.The 100 Milers start on Saturday morning, 5am. They have 36 Hours to complete the course.The 50 Milers (New option) start on Sunday Morning, 6am. And they have 12 hours to complete the course.

I toured the course on Sunday when I went out to hang the ribbons. It's a muddy, slick, slippery mess. About 90% of the leaves are down and strewn about the trail. They are saturated and cover up all of the rocks and roots. Over the last 5 days the course has received over 4" of rain and from what I hear, a few inches of snow last night. Water was pouring out of everywhere on Sunday and I'm certain it still is. The few muddy sections we have are slippery and deep. Runners WILL BE WET and miserable... or maybe they enjoy it. Quite a challenge lay before them and its our duty to help them succeed through the best of all of our abilities. It should be a good time.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, we need volunteers. Pittsfield is on Route 100 in Vermont. We'd love to have you. Feel like running? We welcome you to our mountains to run as many or few laps as you desire. The course is open. Runners will need pacers. Or maybe you want to enjoy a nice challenging long run. We'll be there.. come see us at the Aimee Farm. Good luck to all those all ready registered, including Ri Fahnestock, who if and when he completes the 100 mile event, will win the coveted $10,000 Peaks Purse for completed ALL of our races this past year. (Snowshoe Marathon, McNaughton Park 100, Peaks 50, Death Race, 666 Mt. Bike and 100 Mile Funeral Run)!!